This morning's update

We're so proud of our big guy! Last night when we went to see him before bedtime, we were told that his oxygen on ECMO was down to the 21% and the ECMO pump is down around 200, as low as they go. His body is doing so much of the work on it's own right now and his pre and post ductal sats remain around 99-100. If you see a large split between those two numbers, it indicates pulmonary hypertension. Right now, he's not showing the signs of that anymore. His blood is flowing the way it's supposed to--to the lungs. All of his numbers look very positive and we're on the verge of getting him off of life support (let's face it, that's what ECMO is).

We're waiting for a reading of his latest head and heart ultrasounds. The ones on his heart have looked very good lately. We're hoping that ductus will completely close off but even if it does, it can reopen at any point. Many kids have it reopen after their surgery and that increases the chance that the pulmonary hypertension will reoccur.

We're a bit concerned about the head ultrasounds. I don't remember if I shared that, at one point, we thought Drew had a Grade 1 (graded 1-4) brain bleed. After doing another U/S and reviewing the other ones, they backed off of that diagnosis and think it was just a shadow on the U/S. I know they did another head U/S yesterday and I want to know what it showed. There seems to be about a 24 hour turnaround on someone reading them, or at least until word filters down. Dr. M. (Drew's surgeon) and the nurses assured me that if there was bad news, we'd know much more quickly.

Now we're just waiting on word from his surgeon on a timeline. Drew's as stable as he's ever been and things are looking good to get him off of ECMO and get the surgery done. Then we have to deal with all of what that entails. He's come such a long way in his 13 days of life.

Just a little PSA, if you are able, please donate blood. I don't know how much blood has been used just on Drew, but it's a lot. Donated blood is such a vital thing for so many people. It's a small thing that you can do that will help so many.